Description

Basketball Equipment – Olympic Sport

Athens 2004 Olympic Games Pin

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad and commonly known as Athens 2004, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. Officially there were 301 events in 28 sports.

Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place at the Helliniko Olympic Indoor Arena, a part of the Hellinikon Olympic Complex, inAthens, for the preliminary rounds, with the later stages being held in the Olympic Indoor Hall at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex.

In each of these Olympic basketball tournaments, 12 teams take part. The host nation (Greece in 2004) automatically receives a berth in the tournament. By winning the two World Championship tournaments in 2002, Yugoslavia, now named Serbia and Montenegro, also put a team into the men’s tournament and the United States a team in the women’s tournament.

The remaining 10 spots in each tournament were allocated by the five Olympic zones. Each of these zones held its own tournaments to select its entries in the Olympic tournament. Africa was allocated one spot in each of these, Oceania was allocated two apiece, and Europe was allocated three. Furthermore, the Americas were allocated three teams for the men’s tournament and just one in the women’s tournament, whereas Asia was allocated just one in the men’s tournament and three in the women’s tournament.